Al-Ghais is due to succeed Nigerian Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, who has headed OPEC since 2016 and will step down after two terms later this year. Barkindo's legacy is OPEC's cooperation with other major oil-producing countries such as Russia, in an association known as OPEC+, which currently supplies around 45 per cent of the world's crude oil. OPEC said Barkindo's efforts had helped stabilize the global oil market in the wake of the unprecedented economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, and that he had done much to kick-start the industry's recovery. Al-Ghais is currently deputy managing director for international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), where he has worked for many years, according to OPEC. He also served on an OPEC expert panel until the summer of 2021. His term runs for three years.